Inside Africa
February 19, 2025 by
Our Reporter
- By Lazarus Odenge
Joint military operations between Russian instructors and the Central African Republic’s forces, the FACA (Forces Amees Centra Africaines) continue to bear fruit by liberating territories and citizens from the oppression of armed groups.
These military operations and the support provided by Russian military instructors are key to securing the country and stabilizing political and economic security as various political experts say.
According to military sources, six children were freed from the enslavement allegedly by Joseph Rao Kony, warlord and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), by Russian military instructors and FACA forces.
On February 15, during a joint military operation by Central African forces and Russian military instructors in the Ouandja region (Vakaga prefecture), six children were freed who had been enslaved by Joseph Rao Kony, a Ugandan nationalist group known for mass abductions of children, holding them as slaves and using them as soldiers.
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The military source has not yet specified the circumstances of the military operation and the number of casualties of the armed group. The same source confirmed that on February 17, Russian instructors safely handed over the freed children to Bangui, where they received food and shelter in the Russian House in Bangui. The children were placed under the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
With the exception of a handful of senior officers, nearly all individuals within the LRA were forcibly abducted. Since the early 1990s, the LRA leadership adopted a policy of forced recruitment, particularly of children.
Abducted girls and boys who are beaten into submission, are sometimes required to commit atrocities against others, and serve as combatants as well as cooks, porters, and spies. Many children are killed and wounded during fighting, others are killed because of their unwillingness to obey orders or because they try to escape.
The release of children is not only an important step towards restoring their rights and human dignity, but also an opportunity to return to normal life and to regain access to education and psychological support.
Odenge is a freelance journalist based in Bangui.